The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.
Parallel Translations
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The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.
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And the Lorde sayde to him: Now do the Pharises make clene the out side of the cup and of the platter: but youre inwarde parties are full of raveninge and wickednes.
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And the Lord saide to him, In deede yee Pharises make cleane the outside of the cuppe, and of the platter: but the inwarde part is full of rauening and wickednesse.
Cross-references (24)
Passages linked to Luke 11:39 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
- Genesis 6:5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
- Proverbs 30:12 There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness.
- Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
- Luke 16:15 He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
- Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
- John 12:6 Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money box, used to steal what was put into it.
- Acts 5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land?
- Acts 8:21-23 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn’t right before God. Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”
- James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- 2 Chronicles 25:2 He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, but not with a perfect heart.
- 2 Chronicles 31:20-21 Hezekiah did so throughout all Judah; and he did that which was good, right, and faithful before Yahweh his God. In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
- Psalms 22:13 They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.
- Proverbs 26:25 When his speech is charming, don’t believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.
- Jeremiah 4:14 Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?
- Ezekiel 22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it.
- Ezekiel 22:27 Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
- Zephaniah 3:3 Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.
- Matthew 12:33-35 “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit. You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
- Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, “Don’t cry.”
- John 13:2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
- Galatians 1:14 I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
- 2 Timothy 3:5 holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do…
39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
Ver. 39. See Mat 23:25.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain We have much the same, though delivered in another…
We have much the same, though delivered in another form, with a denunciation of a woe, See Poole on "Mat 23:25". We must not imagine that our Saviour here reflects upon the cleansing of vessels in which we put our meat and drink, for undoubtedly, as to them, the Pharisees washed both the inside and the outside. And the conceit of them is amiss who think that by the inward part, Luk 11:39, he means the meat in their dishes, which was gotten indeed by ravening, and wickedness, extortion, &c.; for it is a hard interpretation of the inward part of the platter, to say, by it is meant the meat in the platter; but neither doth our Saviour say, the inward part of the dish, but your inward part, by which he plainly means the soul. Our Saviour doth therefore certainly compare the Pharisees to dishes or platters washed or scoured only on the outside, and blames their hypocrisy in this, that they were mighty solicitous about an outside purity and cleanness, but for the inward purity of the heart and soul, they took no care at all about that; they were very scrupulous about undefiled hands, but nothing at all about having their souls and inward powers and affections undefiled. This he telleth them was most egregious folly, for God, that made the body, made the soul also, and therefore would exact a purity in the inward as well as the outward man, especially considering that he loveth truth in the inward parts.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But rather give alms of such things as ye…
But rather give alms of such things as ye have,.... The phrase , is variously rendered, and so furnishes out various senses: the Syriac version renders it, "give that which is", which is yours; or "which is given to you", as the Persic version, and agrees with ours, "such things as ye have"; and which carries in it but a very odd sense; for none can give of that which they have not. The Vulgate Latin version reads, "that which is over and above"; superfluous substance, and which may be easily spared without hurting a man, or his family: others, "as much as you can": according to a man's ability, and as God has prospered him in the world. The Ethiopic version renders it, "that which is necessary"; which the necessities of the poor call for, and is right and proper to give them: and the Arabic version, very foreign from the sense of the phrase, reads, "before every thing"; above all things give alms. But the true sense of it is contained in the literal version of it, "things that are within"; that is, that are within the cup and the platter; give meat and drink to the poor, your platters and cups are full of, gotten by injustice and oppression. Some read it not imperatively, "give", but indicatively, "ye do give": you oppress and defraud men, devour widows' houses, and fill your own with the spoils of others; and then give out of your cups and platters drink to the thirsty, and meat to the hungry, to make atonement for your avarice and extortion:
and behold all things are clean unto you; that is, according to their own opinion, who fancied that alms deeds justified them in the sight of God, cleansed them from their sins, delivered them from hell, and gave them a title to eternal life; See Gill on Mat 6:1 for it can never be thought to be our Lord's meaning in earnest, that either their persons, or what they had, should be pure and clean unto them, by giving a part of their ill-gotten goods to the poor; but he speaks their sense, in an ironic way. From this opinion of theirs it is, that the Hebrew word, which signifies "to be clean", is used by them for giving alms: so it is said (y), that
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"R. Jonathan and Resh Lekish went down to bathe themselves in the baths of Tiberias; and a certain poor man met them, and said unto them, , "give me alms"; they said unto him, when we come back we will , "give thee alms":''
and so the Mahometans call alms by the same name, because they imagine that they cleanse their other substance from pollution, and their souls from avarice.
(y) Vajikra Rabba, Sect. 34. fol. 174. 2. Vid. fol. 173. 3, 4. & 174. 4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Now ye Pharisees - Probably many of them were…
Now ye Pharisees - Probably many of them were present at the Pharisee's house. Matt. xxiii, 25.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 39. Ye - make clean the outside] See…
Verse 39. Ye - make clean the outside] See Clarke on Mt 23:25.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain See Mat 23:25. “Ravening.” Robbery, plunder. Here the sense…
See Mat 23:25. “Ravening.” Robbery, plunder. Here the sense is that the cup and platter were filled with what had been unjustly taken from others. That is, they lived by their wickedness; their food was procured by dishonesty and extortion. This was a most terrible charge; and as it was applied, among others, to the man who had invited the Saviour to dine with him, it shows that nothing would prevent his dealing faithfully with the souls of people. Even in the Pharisee’s own house, and when expressly invited to partake of his hospitality, he loved his soul so much that he faithfully warned him of his crimes.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain cup and platter--remarkable example of our Lord's way of…
cup and platter--remarkable example of our Lord's way of drawing the most striking illustrations of great truths from the most familiar objects and incidents of life.
ravening--rapacity.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 39-44. On words similar to these we have annotated…
39-44. On words similar to these we have annotated in Matthew 23. That our Lord under similar circumstances should use similar thoughts and expressions, and even quote the same Scripture passage, is perfectly natural. The lawyer who has essentially the same cause to plead, though with different parties, would of course go through the same argument, quote the same authorities, and even make the same impassioned appeal to the same emotions. The popular orator in a political canvass repeats the same speech to rouse the passions of successive audiences. The physician a hundred times finds the same symptoms grouped in the same disease, and applies the same medicines. The author, even a Strauss, publishes thousands of copies of the same book. The singer, when encored, goes through the same notes and strains to excite the same feelings. Why then should not he who has once gone through with an impressive and unsurpassable train of thought, employ it a second and a third time, under precisely similar demands? Our Saviour was perpetually meeting the same sort of men, who were suffering the same diseases, and needing the same truths and dealings. The same sort of facts and teachings would therefore occur not only twice but thrice and four times.
39. The Lord said unto him—In this verse our Lord depicts, by a very impressive image, the contrast between the external ritual purity and the internal moral impurity of the pharisaical classes.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 39. Now do ye Pharisees] Doubtless other circumstances besides…
39. Now do ye Pharisees] Doubtless other circumstances besides the mere supercilious astonishment of the Pharisee led to the vehement rebuke. The eightfold woe in Matthew 23 is fuller than here. Jesus denounces their frivolous scrupulosity (39), combined with gross insincerity (42), their pride (43), and their corruption (44).
make clean the outside of the cup and the platter] Mar_7:4, “washing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables.” On one occasion the Sadducees seeing them busied in washing the great Golden Candelabrum sneeringly observed that they would wash the Sun itself if they could get the opportunity.
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your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness] i.e. of greed, and of the depravity which causes it. A slightly different turn of expression is given in Mat_23:25-26. See Excursus VI. on Sects of the Jews; and compare these denunciations with those delivered in the Temple on the last day (Tuesday in Passion Week) of the Lord’s public ministry, Mat_23:25-28. The early Christian heretics reflected the character of these Pharisees in their mixture of elaborate profession with real godlessness, Tit_1:15-16.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (39) Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside…
(39) Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup.—See Note on Mat_23:25. The verses that follow stand in the relation to the great discourse against the Pharisees in that chapter, as the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6) does to the Sermon on the Mount. Here, too, we recognise another instance, not of a narrative misplaced, but of words actually repeated. All past experiences, all faults previously noted, were gathered at last into one great and terrible invective. We note, as an instance of independence, St. Luke’s use of a different Greek word for “platter,” viz., that which is elsewhere (Mat_14:8; Mat_14:11) better translated charger, the large central dish, as distinguished from the smaller “platter” or side-dish. For the “excess” of St. Matthew, St. Luke has the more generic “wickedness.” From one point of view the words are more startling here than in their context in St. Matthew. There they are spoken as in open conflict with a class, here they are addressed to an individual member of the class, and by One whom he had invited as a guest. It must be remembered, however, that there was a touch of supercilious scorn in all these invitations, still more, perhaps, in the looks and whispers in which the wonder in this instance showed itself; and the words point to secret sins which the Searcher of hearts knew, and which it was necessary to reprove.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 39, 40. And the Lord said unto him,…
Vers. 39, 40. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? Many of the words spoken on this occasion had been uttered by the Master previously. The variations in them, slight though they be, necessitate often quite a different interpretation. This helps us to come to the conclusion that in these cases the Lord must have spoken such sayings on different occasions. In this place, for instance, in the report of a similar accusation levelled against the Pharisees reported by St. Matthew, (Mat_23:25) the second clause of the verse, which treats of the outside of the cup and the platter, reads thus: but within they are full of extortion and excess." The meaning of this is while every care had been taken to purify the cup and the dish, no pains whatever had been paid to the source whence came the contents of these. They were too often the proceeds of extortion, they were too frequently consumed with self-indulgence. But here, in St. Luke, the second clause reads, "your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." The meaning of these words is, "In spite of your extreme care for the vessels of your table, your whole moral life is unclean and defiled. Are you not," argues the Master, "fools to lay down such strict rules to avoid outward defilement, while within, in the soul, you allow all manner of wickedness? Surely God, who created the things we see and touch, created the soul also!"
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 39–52. The Lord said unto him. The denunciation of…
39–52. The Lord said unto him. The denunciation of the Pharisees and lawyers contained in these verses is found in similar language in Matthew, chapter 23. That address was spoken in the temple. There is no improbability about the Lord speaking the same discourse twice to the same class of opposers. See the notes on Matt. 23:1–36. Verse 41 is peculiar to Luke. Give for alms, etc. The Pharisees were careful for the outside; careless for what was within; but the Lord says: “Give for alms the within;” i. e., let your hearts and lives be full of compassion, and it will make you clean.
Ye tithe mint. See note on Matt. 23:23.
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Ye love the uppermost seats. See note on Matt. 23:6.
Ye build the sepulchres. See notes on Matt. 23:29, 30.
Taken away the key of knowledge. Matt. 23:13, in different words, gives the thought. See note there.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Jesus begins to speak to the Pharisee using a metaphor. He compares the way they clean cups and bowls to how they clean themselves. (See: Metaphor)
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the outside of cups and bowls
Washing of the outside of containers was a part of the ritual practices of the Pharisees. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
but the inside of you is filled with greed and evil
This part of the metaphor contrasts the careful way they clean the outside of the dishes with the way they ignore their own internal condition. (See: Metaphor)
You senseless men
This expression can refer to men or women, even though all of the Pharisees to whom Jesus was speaking to here were men.
Did not the one who made the outside also make the inside?
Jesus uses a question to rebuke the Pharisees for not understanding that what is in their hearts matters to God. This can be translated as a statement. AT: "The one who made the outside also made the inside!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Give to the poor what is inside
This refers to what they should be doing with their cups and bowls. AT: "Give to the poor what is inside your cups and bowls" or "Be generous to the poor" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
all things will be clean for you
"you will be completely clean" or "you will be clean both inside and outside"
translationWords
lord
Pharisee
evil
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:39 The Pharisees had meticulous rules for ceremonially cleaning…
11:39 The Pharisees had meticulous rules for ceremonially cleaning cups and utensils for religious purity. Jesus accused them of cleaning only the outside of the cup (following external rules) but leaving the inside . . . filthy (keeping unrighteousness in their hearts).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.